






:^' 






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DDRESSES of Dr. Fred- 
erick H. Sykes and Rev. 
W. Hudson Shaw, and 
Letters Concerning the 
Value of the Work of the Amer- 
ican Society for the Extension 
of University Teaching. 



tL, 



C^i 



ADDRESSES 

Delivered in 1903 at the Annual Meeting 



OF 



The American Society for the 

Extension of University 

Teaching 

BY 

FREDERICK H. SYKES, Ph.D. 
REV. W. HUDSON SHAW, M. A. 

AND 

LETTERS 

Concerning the Value of the Society's Work 



1903 

The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching 

III South Fifteenth Street 

Philadelphia 



MRS. WOCD;R0W WU. 
HBV. 2F.. 195? 



^1 



b,»- 



An Appeal for the Maintenance and En- 
dowment of University Extension. 
Address by Dr. Frederick H. Sykes. 

DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE 

EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING, PHILADELPHIA, 

JANUARY 31, 1903. 

Mr. Chairman, Directors and Members of our University Ex- 
tension Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

It is a rare event for Extension lecturers to be privileged 
to enjoy what I may call, in this company, the pleasure of 
their own Society. But to-day the railways miss some ac- 
customed fares. In halls and libraries, in chapels and 
churches, to-night, all is dark and deserted. Queen Eliza- 
beth is not moved by lectures on her Age. At Assisi, St 
Francis sleeps with his bones, Rome does not rise to- 
night, nor is modern Europe awakened. The child, oblivi- 
ous of his undeveloped ethics, lies happily tucked in bed. 
Upon their accustomed beat the moral leaders are not 
found. Shakspere's sock is off. Wagner is not ex- 
pounded; the nations do not sing or dance; nor do we 
care to learn to listen to music, for there is none to Hsten 
to. The voice of the Extension lecturer is hushed in the 
land. 

The reason that brings us here to-night is no sHght one. 

3 



It is understood by us all that, on the administrative side 
of University Extension, we are face to face with what I 
may call a grave crisis. This crisis does not exist in Ex- 
tension teaching itself. Never has the work been more 
thorough, never have the centres been in better condition, 
never has the attendance been so great. Thirteen years 
ago we had forty-two courses of lectures attended by nine 
thousand people (9297). This year we are already assured 
of ninety-five courses attended by twenty-five thousand 
people. The average attendance at our lectures during 
the first ten years was 194. The average attendance at 
the lectures of this year is 265. 

We have gone to communities large and small, in the 
great cities — Philadelphia and New York and Baltimore, 
and in the towns and even villages through an area ex- 
tending for two hundred miles about Philadelphia. Wher- 
ever we have gone, we have gone only after local initiative 
and local responsibility have been awakened. Our lec- 
tures, it must be remembered, are not given by this vSo- 
ciety; they are arranged and held by local centres. We 
have therefore got together, in every centre, a small body 
of men and women, devoting time and effort, without re- 
ward except for the joy of well-doing, to the higher Hfe of 
their community. All praise for our local secretaries, to 
whose devotion and energy and self-sacrifice our move- 
ment owes much of its success! Through that local initia- 
tive, local management, and local support University Ex- 
tension ceases to be an exotic, foisted on the local com- 
munity; it enters into the life of the community; it sup- 

4 -■ 



1 



plies what the local leaders of the community believe the 
community requires and will support. When these local 
leaders, or the locality itself, cease to believe in it, work 
for it, pay for it, our cause is over. We must carry the 
community with us or our work ends. 

We work under the most diverse conditions, and with 
most varied audiences. We must live up to the maxim 
of that first Extension lecturer who preached all things 
to all men. We go to great centres like Association 
Local in Philadelphia, — a centre that after thirteen years 
of continuous activity gathers together this year for 
courses of thirty-two historical lectures, a thousand audi- 
tors — an audience in character and standing and intellec- 
tual interest not to be paralleled elsewhere in this coun- 
try, if in the world. That is a testimony of University Ex- 
tension of which no member of this Society need be 
ashamed. 

We go to small centres, in towns like Moorestown, 
Parkesburg, Milford, Hatboro, Woodstown, Millville. 
We have centres even in remote country districts, where 
perhaps a carriage-house is the improvised lecture-room, 
and farmers and farmers' wives are the only auditors. And 
we have centres in artisan districts where the committee 
and audience are workingmen and working women. We 
go to centres where for the first time church divisions are 
broken down in a common cause. We co-operate with 
women's clubs, acting at times for the community, as at 
Oak Lane, West Chester, Media, Lancaster, Asbury Park, 
Williamsport. We co-operate with schools and colleges, 



acting also at times for the community, as at Ogontz, 
Easton, Catonsville, Baltimore, Frederick, Indiana. We 
co-operate with teachers' organizations, as in the immense 
gatherings of the International Kindergarten Union of 
this city, and the union meetings at the Normal School 
of the teachers' organizations of Philadelphia. We co- 
operate with that splendid lecture institution, the Brook- 
lyn Institute, — a foundation we should like to parallel in 
Philadelphia. We co-operate in that vast system of free 
lectures given by the Board of Education to the people of 
New York, — some day to have its fellow-system in this 
city. 

Throughout these varied audiences and various centres 
we have done our work. We have held our audiences on 
the great lines of history, poetry, drama, the novel, music, 
economics, ethics, child study, and so on. We have stimu- 
lated systematic reading and study. We have developed 
study classes. We have in some measure met the demand 
for good books by our traveling libraries. We have shown 
communities the need and value of public libraries. We 
have co-operated with local libraries, often lecturing in 
their halls, to increase interest in reading and give guid- 
ance in the choice of books. We have given instruction 
through the personality of the trained teacher and trained 
speaker, so as to humanize knowledge, which books alone 
cannot do. "Mind grows like a spirit," said Carlyle, "by 
mysterious contact with spirit, thought kindling itself at 
the fire of living thought." We have offered something 
of the benefit and the delight of higher and continuous 

6 



education to men and women who desire it, without de- 
taching them from their calHngs and their homes. Our 
work has made for a better pubhc opinion and for a hap- 
pier, because a more intelHgent, social Hfe. 

The crisis does not he in University Extension proper. 
Our work and our centres have no crisis. Our centres raise . 
about $30,000 annually for their work. They are solvent 
somewhat after Mr. Mieawber's calculations: "Annual in- 
come twenty pounds, annual expenditures twenty ought 
and six, result misery; annual income twenty pounds, an- 
nual expenditures nineteen ought and six, result happi- 
ness." The crisis lies with the central office, the adminis- 
tration of our Society. The powerhouse of the whole 
movement lacks fuel, and the lights shining in the most 
distant places are threatened with extinction. The in- 
come of the central ofifice has for thirteen years been 
steadily diminishing, and thisyear has fallen far below its in- 
evitable cost. We get the means of support for the central 
administration from three sources of revenue: First, the 
fees of membership in our Society, $5 and $10 annually, 
amounting this year to $1100; second, the fees of $10 paid 
by the local centres, above the lecturer's fee, for each 
course they hold, amounting this year to something over 
$600; third, subscriptions from a few generous and stead- 
fast friends of education, who give from $25 to $500 an- 
nually, to the amount this year, so far assured, of $3000. 
The total is $4700, out of which the Society must provide 
a central office, secretaries, typewriters, etc., at a minimum 
cost of $6500. That is the first part of the crisis. But the 

7 



real crisis is a greater one. We have come to realize that 
in the work of University Extension we are engaged in a 
national work, with an income little larger than that of 
a Philadelphia Society for the painless extinction of cats 
and dogs. 

We have come, I repeat, to reahze that we have entered 
upon the national work of adult education. University 
Extension is a great flexible system of education evolved 
to supplement the College where the College is practically 
powerless to serve the community at large. If men and 
women can give up three or four years of their lives, live 
upon capital, freed from duties of home or business, they 
may get a college education. And they will get an in- 
estimable boon. But do we realize how few they are for 
whom college education is actually possible? That great 
boon exists for how many in our community? Can I say 
ten per cent.? No, nor five. Can I say two per cent.? 
No, — not even one per cent. 

Our proper field is this great Atlantic division, made 
up of our wealthiest states, dotted over with colleges great 
and small. And what are the conditions? In the primary 
schools there are four million little boys and girls who get 
the rudiments (4,050,047); two hundred and thirty thou- 
sand (234,252) will reach the high schools; seventy thou- 
sand (70,183) will reach the preparatory and technical 
schools; and only thirty-six thousand (35,919) will attain to 
the colleges and universities."^ We maybe theorists and say 

*Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1900-1901. 

8 



that in this era of universities everybody who will can get a 
college education. It is not so. We shall do better to face 
the facts of life as life is lived about us, and the great fact in 
education to-day is this: In every 121 men and zvomen we 
meet, one gets a college education,; and 120 do not, and, as life 
is lived, cannot get a college education. These 120 represent 
the men and women who carry on this practical work-a- 
day world. They are our merchants and mechanics, our 
clerks and salesmen, our railroadmen, our factory hands, 
our farmers, our school teachers, our housekeepers, our 
homemakers, our wives. For the education of the one 
man, millions are poured like water. What are we doing 
for the one hundred and twenty? This is not only the era 
of universities, it is also the era of democracy. We feel our 
duty to learning, and we feel our duty to humanity. And 
there is no University man to-day with a soul above the 
sod that does not rejoice at every effort to bring some- 
thing of college education to the many. Noble were Car- 
lyle's words: "If the poor and humble toil that we may 
have food, must not the high and glorious toil for him in 
return that he have Light, Guidance, Freedom, Immor- 
tality." 

To reach the many there are two great educational 
means so far evolved — the one is the Free Public Library 
that offers books, the other is University Extension that 
offers teaching. Each is indispensable to the other. To- 
gether they make that organization we can see dimly tak- 
ing shape — the University of the people. 

Seven thousand dollars a year has enabled this Uni- 

9 



versity Extension Society to do what it has done, and that 
sum assured for a term of years will continue to enable 
us to exist. But it is a humble and precarious existence. 
That sum leaves us cramped by poverty in every sphere of 
our usefulness, — without a single class-room to offer our 
Philadelphia students, powerless to help distant centres 
in their heavy expenses, powerless to help weak centres 
in small or poor districts, powerless to supply the travel- 
ing libraries needed in our centres, powerless to occupy 
more than a few nooks and corners of the great field we 
have entered in, powerless to maintain a full staff of lec- 
turers, powerless even to retain the lecturers we get by 
adequate remuneration and by humane conditions of ser- 
vice. To-day the weary Extension lecturer is saying with 
Falstaff, "I were better to be eaten to death with a rust, 
than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion." It 
is not right that we should kill our lecturers that this Uni- 
versity Extension Society may live on an inadequate in- 
come. With ten thousand a year we should do our pre- 
sent work thoroughly and something over. I think with 
ten thousand a year, well administered, we could have 
fifty thousand people, in two hundred centres throughout 
Philadelphia and the states of which Philadelphia is the 
natural centre. A million dollars — and shall we not rather 
think of a great endowment of this national work? — a mil- 
lion dollars for University Extension would exert for all 
time an influence more vital to good citzenship, more con- 
ducive to human happiness,, more popularly beneficent 
than a similar endowment for any other form of education 

lO 



of which I have knowledge. In the name of the thousands 
of men and women we work for and the hundreds of thou- 
sands we wish to reach, I ask from this Society and from 
others who would render true service to humanity, that 
support for University Extension adequate to its pressing 
needs and to its proper development. 

Sirs, I do not fear the issue of this crisis. I take it as 
an omen of a brighter future that we have with us as 
speaker to-night the foremost Extension lecturer of Eng- 
land, the Rev. W. Hudson Shaw, to whom the American 
lecturers ever extend a heartfelt welcome, both for the 
energizing influence of his personality and work, and his 
deep abiding faith in our movement. And we have with 
us to speak also the foremost citizen of Philadelphia, 
Mr. John H. Converse, to bear out traditions of civic duty 
estabhshed here from of old. We appeal to-night to Phila- 
delphia, the cradle of this movement in America. In this 
city of wealth; in this city of traditions of intellectual 
liberty and civic devotion; in this city of Penn and Frank- 
lin and Stephen Girard and George W. Childs and 
Anthony J. Drexel, our appeal must not be in vain. 

"Help us to need no aid from men. 
That we may help such men as need." 



Address of Rev. W. Hudson Shaw, M.A. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I am afraid I am here to-night under false colors. I 
understand that I was invited to deliver a funeral oration 
on University Extension. Well, I have come to praise 
Csesar, not bury him (applause). I do not believe in that 
funeral one bit, Mr. Chairman; I do not beheve that the 
crisis is very serious. I do not believe that University 
Extension in Philadelphia is really on its last legs. Can 
anybody listen to Dr. Sykes' discourse or Mr. Miles' 
figures, and then remain unconvinced? Die, ladies and 
gentlemen? What for? Is it because you are more suc- 
cessful in your movement than you ever were since you 
began? Is it because you cannot get lecturers, secretaries 
and people to take interest in your movement, and cannot 
get any audiences? What are the facts? You have this 
year no less than 25,000 persons in attendance on your 
present lectures. Would you mind comparing those 
figures with those of other University Extension bodies 
in Europe? The largest Extension movement in Eng- 
land is that of the University which I represent to-night 
— Oxford. Our total attendance, according to the last 
report, after, not twelve years' work that you have had, 
but eighteen; and we have worked pretty hard, our 

13 



total attendance at the present moment is 20,000, against 
Philadelphia's Society, 25,000. The London University 
Extension movement has been in existence twenty-seven 
years and their figures for last year against your 25,000 
were 15,000. The founder of all these societies — the be- 
ginner of the whole thing, was, of course, the University 
of Cambridge, which, after thirty years' work, with a very 
faithful staff of lecturers, has at the present moment 
10,000 students in attendance. If we had come here to- 
night to listen to a report saying that in spite of our 
efforts, in spite of everything that could be done, in spite 
of the expenditure of a hundred thousand dollars, your 
Committee were sorry to say that people were not ap- 
preciative — that the attendance at the centres was stead- 
ily decreasing; that no students could be had; that people 
would not read our books, and that, although every en- 
couragement was given us in money, still we found that 
people would not come: — then, indeed, we might have 
celebrated a funeral; but as it is this Society, with a 
splendid list of members, the parent Society of America, 
the pioneer of all University Extension movements 
throughout the whole United States, stands now far above 
any of the English societies in the magnitude of its opera- 
tions. ' 

Well, that is a curious time to choose for dissolution. 
What is the real crisis, ladies and gentlemen? We over 
in England cannot help taking a: real and genuine interest 
in this matter. I was wondering, as I came along, why I 
of all people had been selected to speak to you this even- 

14 



ing, — I, a mere visitor, a mere Britisher and a paid hireling 
of your Society. (Laughter.) Well, at length I have hit 
upon the explanation of that mystery. I have no doubt 
that you have given me this privilege to-night (and I 
value it very much), because you have remembered that in 
a sense the Philadelphia Society is Oxford's child. We 
really gave you your methods. When Mr. Douglas and 
his Commission came tO' England thirteen years ago they 
examined all the University Extension schemes; they con- 
sidered every one of them, and they finally adopted, not 
Cambridge or London, but the scheme of Oxford; and 
to-day you are identically on the same lines that we are 
there. You remind me of what happened a few years ago 
when a colored gentleman from the Fiji Islands, in the 
year of our great Queen's Jubilee, was speaking enthusias- 
tically in Sydney Harbor about the British Empire and 
the extent of dominion over which Queen Victoria ruled, 
and her four hundred millions of subjects. Some by- 
stander turned to him and said: "What are you talking 
about? You are not a British subject at all — you have 
not a drop of British blood in all your veins." "I am 
not quite so sure of that," said the colored gentleman; 
"at any rate I know this that my great-great-grand- 
father helped to eat Captain Cook." (Laughter.) Ladies 
and gentlemen, if I may say so, the relationship of this 
Society to the British Society is something of that nature; 
you in Philadelphia have absorbed the blood and bones 
and sinews of Oxford University Extension. I do not like 
mixing metaphors, but you are also our baby and we 

IS 



take a great interest in you; we have watched you 
through your tender years, and now when we thought you 
had come to a lusty manhood you are about to die! 
Ladies and gentlemen, it is just unthinkable. What are 
you going to die for? You are going to die, I understand, 
for lack of the magnificent sum of two thousand dollars 
per annum, or less. Does anyone mean to tell me that 
when the leading men of Philadelphia have the facts 
placed before them — and you know the reason for all our 
difficulty is that you are so filled up in Philadelphia with 
every kind of splendid scheme of philanthropy that a 
little thing Hke this, a movement which goes about its 
work quietly, gets lost sight of and people absolutely 
do not know the facts, — that if Philadelphia is told on 
Monday morning that either the funds of the American 
Society must be increased and very quickly and con- 
siderably or else next winter 25,000 students may go 
about their business, that that will not end the little 
crisis? If it does not, then, ladies and gentlemen, Phila- 
delphia is not worthy to have a University Extension 
movement at all. 

We have all done our best. Your directors have worked 
hard for thirteen years; men like Mr. Brinley and Mr. 
Miles have given up of their time. (Applause.) You 
have had skilled officials, amongst the very best. I would 
like to acknowledge what I have always found to be their 
unfailing kindness and courtesy to everybody working 
under them. Your lecturers have done their very best to 
make the movement a success; we have succeeded beyond 

16 



our wildest hopes. Nobody could have dreamed when we 
began this movement that after twelve years' work we 
would be likely to boast of a larger constituency than any 
other University Extension in the world, with the single 
possible exception of the University of Chicago. 

There is the great train waiting in the depot; the cars 
are crowded with passengers, everything in first rate 
order; the engine is good and the engineer is very good; 
the conductors are — perhaps I myself and Dr. Sykes and 
Mr. Lavell are getting a little old in the work, but still 
we know it fairly well, and yet the thing won't move! 
You finally hear an explanation: "The train cannot 
run, because you are short of a half-dozen bucketfuls 
of coal." You apply to the proprietor. Mistress Phila- 
delphia, and state your requirements; but she has so 
many vociferous applicants, she cannot afford a half- 
dozen bucketfuls of coal and so the University Extension 
train is to be left in the depot! Well, I do not beheve it 
is going to be; and instead of talking about funerals to- 
night I want to throw all that aside and ask the audience 
if they won't look upon this evening's meeting as not the 
end — the terminus and a disgraceful end, too, — but rather 
as the beginning of a new period in University Extension, 
— a period of reconstruction perhaps, a period of hope- 
fulness, a period in which we hope to see quadrupled our 
operations throughout this State. The difificulty is to get 
the opponent, the critic, to state his objections. Why 
is it that the public has not responded more liberally to the 
claims of University Extension which has been preached 

17 



by your press, which has been preached by your profes- 
sors, and exalted by your best citizens in Philadelphia? I 
have been trying for the last few days to find out the pos- 
sible arguments of the opponent and the critic and the 
indififerentist and they all resolve themselves into one, and 
that is, that University Extension by this time ought to 
be self-supporting. My first answer thereto is that it is 
self-supporting. You remember how when the Royal 
Society of England was formed, the mischievous monarch, 
Charles II, propounded a riddle: "Why was it that if 
you took a glass jar and filled it full of water and then ' 
introduced into it a number of goldfish the water did 
not overflow?" And the Royal Society took a good 
many days and weeks to examine that difficult problem. 
They could find no solution until at last they tried the ex- 
periment and found that the water did actually overflow. 
You have that here, too; the water does overflow. Our 
centres from one point of view, that is, maintaining them- 
selves when once arranged, must be regarded as self- 
supporting. From the time when the lecturer is placed 
on the platform fronting his Extension audience, — from 
that moment to the end the work of every centre in this 
State is self-supporting. None of the money of our sub- 
scribers goes to the aid of these centres; but after all, that 
is only one way of looking at it. Suppose we should admit 
that University Extension was not quite self-supporting — 
that it required the miserable little sum of $6000 every 
year, could anybody tell me of any scheme for the educa- 
tion of mankind from the beginning of this world that 

18 



had been self-supporting? Are your universities self-sup- 
porting? Do your colleges manage to get along without 
endowments, or anything of the kind? As far as I know, 
the only scheme for education which has come near to be 
self-supporting in the fullest sense is this very University 
Extension for which you and I are concerned. You don't 
like figures, but one or two are necessary. 

Since the Philadelphia Society began its work some 
$400,000 has been paid for lectures. I know in the statis- 
tics read to you it is put down as $300,000; but I think, 
after long experience, I may say that you must add to that 
a hundred thousand dollars more for the very large local 
expenses which do not appear in the accounts of our So- 
ciety. I think you can take it that we have spent during 
our thirteen years $400,000 on popular education, whereof 
the one-fourth part has been subscribed,^-given by the 
benefactors, — and three-fourths paid by the people them- 
selves. I fancy that that proportion would satisfy Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie. If he could be assured that for every 
dollar laid down by himself the people were going to lay 
down three for their own education he would be extremely 
gratified and satisfied; and therefore I take it that the cry 
for University Extension to be self-supporting is really 
not a very intelligent one, it is about as near to being self- 
supporting as we can ever expect. 

I want to look to the future. The experimental period 
is now over. We have tried this work for twelve years and 
we know now pretty well what can be done. It has, I 
say, exceeded our expectations, or at any rate the expecta- 

19 



tions of those who were wise and prudent at the begin- 
ning. I have been up in the mountains of your State, up 
at PhiHpsburg and Huntingdon. I would give a great 
deal if my people at home were half as ready to go into 
University Extension right away as are the people of your 
small towns in that part of the State. If I had the oppor- 
tunity I would go into details at this moment; but no less 
than twelve flourishing University Extension centres 
could be established in that part of the world without any 
trouble 'at all. (Applause.) 

It all waits for just the subscription of a few thousand 
dollars. I agree fully with Dr. Sykes, there is no use ask- 
ing for $6000, which would just enable the machine to be 
run under present conditions; it will allow nothing for 
propaganda work, — for the support of centres in places 
where they are most needed. Education is like religion — 
people don't want it until they have got it, — and you 
have got to press it upon them; and those very places that 
we should like tO' serve most are those that don't ask for 
our lectures. 

I desire to put before you a sort of scheme^a little 
Utopia which is floating about in my mind as to what we 
should do in our next twelve years, — in our next epoch. 
Firstly, I am in favor of some radical changes. I am 
rather a revolutionary person, and even University Ex- 
tension in its present state does not satisfy me. I do not 
know if I stand alone, but personally I strongly hope to 
see a much closer connection between the American So- 
ciety of University Extension Teaching and the Uni- 

20 



versity of Pennsylvania. It is thrown in our teeth 
sometimes "there is not any University to extend." I 
don't know whether it is a mere theoretical objection or 
criticism, but I think we should do better work if we were 
closely connected with the University, — affiliated perhaps 
would be a better word, — only in such a way as to retain 
home-rule and local self-government and absolute ad- 
herence to our own tried and tested University Extension 
methods. I remember an old weaver from Lancashire at 
the time when we were querying in Oxford as to whether 
we should accept State aid for our University Extension 
movement. He said in his rough way: "If State aid means 
State interference, then I say away with it. If we can 
have State aid without State interference, then let us take 
it." Well, I should like to have a friendly union and al- 
liance with the University. I should like to feel that we 
were closely connected with it. I think I agree with Pro- 
vost Harrison that such a union would be good for the 
University and good for University Extension, provided 
always, as said, that we are an affiliated body and al- 
lowed to go our way on the method that we have found 
to be the very best for popular education amongst the 
masses of the people. That may be, however, only a per- 
sonal feeling. But I am perfectly sure that the great 
event of this year in Philadelphia is the glorious promised 
benefaction of Mr. Carnegie for building thirty public 
libraries here. If I am not wrong that is going to mark 
the beginning of a new intellectual and social life for this 
great city. I have held all my life that University Exten- 

21 



sion and the Free Library system were twin sisters and 
ought never to be separated. Neither of them can do its 
work properly without the other. Carlyle said that the 
true university was a collection of books. Ladies and gen- 
tlemen, it is a lie; or rather it is worse than a lie — it is a 
half truth. The library is a true university only to men 
and women when they have been trained and guided to 
the use of the best books; and so it is with the Free Lib- 
rary system. It is handicapped and will always be handi- 
capped until it is associated with some great method of 
popular teaching, such as that we are trying to use and 
establish. On the other hand, University Extension is 
crippled and must be always unless it has the close alliance 
of the free libraries. For ten years I have been appealing 
in England, but nobody will do it. There is not a librarian 
there who has the sagacity and imagination of Mr. John 
Thomson. Mr. Thomson sees (what is absolutely true) 
that these two things are the complement of each other. 
We have not in all England a library like yours which sets 
apart a room for the use of University Extension students 
with every book to their hands. I wish we had. 

My third plank in reform is this: I strongly disbe- 
lieve in any board of directors for University Extension 
Teaching that has not got any women on it. (Applause.) 
One of the first and most immediate reforms is, that you 
just add three leading women of Philadelphia, of influence 
and power and elect them directors. I hope this is not 
impertinent, Mr. Brinley; but we are here to-night to dis- 
cuss what we can do to improve our Society. Then, again, 

22 



there is another thing badly wanted. I can say it to-night, 
because I am an outsider and Dr. Sykes and the other lec- 
turers cannot possibly speak of it, or rather cannot plead 
their own cause. I said the other night that you were 
sweating your lecturers. It is a strong expression. What 
I mean is this: There has been no thought hiLherto in 
any scheme for University Extension beyond the centres 
themselves. You have never been able to offer your lec- 
turers, the men who serve you gladly and willingly and 
well, to offer them a real career; and so it happens, you 
make good Extension lecturers, and as soon as you have 
made them colleges take them. That is going on all the 
time and has been going on in England for thirty years. 
If University Extension is ever going to be a great, pros- 
perous movement you have got to stop that leak. Uni- 
versity Extension lecturers do not ask for fortunes nor for 
an easy life; or if they do they are not going to get it. 
They are willing to take all manner of risks — the trade is 
bad for the nerves, bad for the body, bad for the mind, bad 
all round. Well, all that the poor man asks for is that you 
will give him something like security of tenure. He 
makes himself an efficient teacher and some college or 
university immediately wants to make him a professor. 
What has become of my colleagues since 1886 when I 
took up this work? There is not one of them left: one is 
a Bishop — Bishop of Stepney, one a Judge, two of them 
college tutors, one high up in the educational department 
of the Government, three have become professors, because 
naturally to-day the professorial chair is a more comfort- 
able chair to rest in than a third-class railway carriage. 

23 



AH this has nothing to do with the immediate crisis: 
that is going to be surmounted. But I want to plead that 
we make no mistake. Set the subscriptions at $10,000 
every year and then beyond that, if we are to do really 
splendid work in the future, there must be founded some- 
how or other some Fellowships or Lectureships. I had one 
for nine years and I know what a great support it was to 
me, and there is no reason we should not have them here 
in Philadelphia. Let us set to work to induce some gen- 
tleman or gentlemen to found those University Extension 
fellowships or lectureships: one in science, perhaps two in 
history, one in literature, one in music and one in political 
economy and sociology. They need not be very large — 
say $500 per year, or if possible it would be better, of 
course, a thousand dollars per year. Then you would 
make University Extension lecturers men of secured 
position; because, as regards the work, it is hard and se- 
vere; then your men won't leave you. Of all the devoted 
men who were gathered together in Oxford in 1886 and 
swore by all their gods that they would not desert the ship, 
I am the only one left and that is because, as my wife says, 
I am crazy. (Prolonged applause.) Well, ladies and gen- 
tlemen, there is my scheme. — Affiliation with the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, if possible; absolute connection 
on any terms with the Free Library, because we are 
complements one of the other; ladies on the board of di- 
rectors, six lectureships or fellowships for tried and ex- 
perienced lecturers that they may continue in your ser- 
vice for many years, and, finally, $10,000 every year for 

24 



the support of the central body and for propaganda pur- 
poses. 

Can you imagine any gentleman of Philadelphia who 
listened to what Dr. Sykes had to say to-night and was 
told, moreover, and has it proved that that strong state- 
ment of his was correct and could be backed up by every 
lecturer, whether here or on the other side, — can you 
imagine the body of intelHgent men who would not say 
at once: "This is a movement which we cannot afford to 
see destroyed." For what is it doing? I am just going 
to tell you the exact truth as I know it: First of all, this 
is the only real system for long-continued popular adult 
education that the world so far has been able to invent. 
We have come to the conclusion now that education is 
not for childhood nor for college age, but for life. It is 
the one scheme of education so far put before the world 
which is never going to make a man or woman one penny 
better in wages or profit: it is absolutely pure and dis- 
interested in its aim — it is for life and not merely for live- 
lihood. You know what our age is. It is in danger of 
materialism. Isn't it something to have an educational 
movement which makes for the ideal things? I have 
seen dingy little towns in England — 5000 to 10,000 
people — entirely transformed after a few years of Uni- 
versity Extension. Tennyson wrote about them — 'those 
little towns: "God," said Tennyson, "made the country, 
and man made the town, and the Devil made the little 
country town"; and in England it is so; they are full of 
their own conceit and importance — narrow, and we can 

25 



help them. They are the places really with which Uni- 
versity Extension ought to deal. I do not see any such 
towns in America; as far as I see they are quite different, 
but they need you also. Take places where I was visiting 
this week: there is no college, no Hbrary, no educational 
institution; they are, I believe, surely the places that the 
University Extension Society should care for — little 
places scattered all over the country to which teachers 
can go as a veritable source of sweetness and light. We 
try to fight against three bad "isms": provincialism, 
materialism, and the worst, Philistinism; and I think 
in that warfare we are sometimes able to do a little 
good work. Somebody will tell me that after all it 
is a mere educational movement — that it has got 
nothing particularly ideal about it, no touch of ethics or 
religion. Ladies and gentlemen, if I did not feel that it 
was at bottom and through and through a great ethical 
and religious movement I would not have served it for 
these seventeen long years. I know that it is. I know that 
it brings together the best and the truest and the most 
unselfish people in every part of the country. You have 
these bands of secretaries gladly giving up their time to 
this miserable little routine work of selling tickets and 
looking after the hall and so forth, willingly year after 
year with no honor, no glory, no anything except the 
satisfaction of doing a little good. You have men like 
Mr. Miles, Mr. Brinley and your directors, who give up 
their time. Why should they; why should these men trou- 
ble themselves? Mr. Nolen, for example, he doesn't see the 

26 . 



people of the centres; we lecturers get all the joy of it. 
These gentlemen sit in an office and arrange the business 
and see nothing of the really splendid side of our move- 
ment. I say there is a fine altruistic spirit about the 
University Extension after all; and beside that, and this is 
my final word: we have come now to take a little wider 
view of religion and we recognize that not only the soul 
has got to be trained and nurtured, but also body, and also 
mind. We are fighting in this movement against stu- 
pidity. What were Schiller's words? "Against stupidity 
and ignorance the gods themselves contend in vain." 
What was Cromwell's verdict? "It is the mind that makes 
the man; without that there is little difference between 
him and the beast." What was the glorious saying of 
that greater than Oliver Cromwell? 

"Sure, He that made us with such large discourse, ' 
Looking before and after, gave us not 
That capability and god-Hke reason 
To fust in us unus'd." 

And that is the aim of the movement that you and I 
support. (Applause.) 



27 



ETTERS Concerning the 
Value of the Work of The 
American Society for the 
Extension of University Teaching 




Printed, 1903, by 
The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching 

III south fifteenth street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



Xetter from 1Presi&ent Brtbur XL, MaOle^ 



YALE UNIVERSITY. 
President's Office. 

New Haven, Conn., November 22, 1902. 
My Dear Sir: — It gives me great pleasure to say that I 
have been most favorably impressed with the organization 
and work of The American Society for the Extension of Uni- 
versity Teaching. I regard the ends which it strives to 
promote as salutary, and the methods which it has adopted 
as in general well calculated toward securing those ends. As 
far as I can judge, it has had a more consistent record of use- 
ful work than any similar organization on either side of the 

Atlantic. 

Faithfully yours, 

(Signed) Arthur T. Hadley. 

Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



Xettcr from Dr. 5). C. Gilman 



614 Park Ave., Baltimore, December 17, 1902. 

My Dear Mr. Br inky: — I duly received your note of De- 
cember 3rd, but I have been so much absorbed with other 
correspondence that I have not been able to give it the atten- 
tion it deserves. Moreover, I was quite confident that I 
should see you in Philadelphia during the recent meeting 
of the Civil Service Reform League. 

Having been familiar, more or less, with the work of The 
American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, 
since its organization, I believe it to be worthy of hearty en- 
couragement. The reports that you send me give abundant 
evidence of the great influence that the Society has exerted in 
the promotion of what may be termed "supplementary" edu- 
cation. It is clear that varied, accurate, and inspiring instruc- 
tion has thus been given to multitudes who would not have 
had access otherwise to anything like such excellent courses 
of lectures. I am sure that pleasure has gone hand in hand 
with study, and this is a good point incidentally gained. 

The term "University Extension" never seemed to me 
felicitous, but it has acquired its place and I do not know 
what better name could now be proposed. 

With sincere personal regard, I am, as ever 
Yours very truly, 

(Signed) D. C. Oilman. 



Xctter from ip>re6i&ent H)av>t^ S. Jordan 



LELAND STANFORD, Jr., UNIVERSITY. 
Office of the President. 

Stanford University, Cal., December 12, 1902. 
yiR. Charles A. Brinley, 

III South Fifteenth Street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dear Sir: — I wish to express my high appreciation of the 

work done by The American Society for the Extension of 

University Teaching. It has helped to raise the standards 

of literary taste and of general scholarship in a great nmnber 

of communities and to lead the people to understand better 

the value and scope of higher education. I am sure that 

the Society and its work deserve the help and encouragement 

of all good citizens. 

Very truly yours, 

(Signed) David S. Jordan. 



Xetter from IPrestbent Benjamin H. XlXIlbeeler 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
Office of the President. 

Berkeley, December 12, 1902. 
My Dear Sir: — Believing strongly in the advantages of 
University Extension, the University of California has this 
year organized its efforts in that field into a distinct De- 
partment of University Extension, under the direction of 
H. Morse Stephens, formerly professor of history in Cornell 
University, and now professor of history in this University. 
Professor Stephens has this year organized six centres in 
various parts of California, and has more than fifteen hundred 
auditors enrolled. It is hoped greatly to extend this work 
in the future, to organize a permanent stafT of University Ex- 
tension lecturers, and to furnish opportunity for such work 
to any California community that may desire it. I shall be 
glad to talk with Professor Stephens about your work and 
to show him the very interesting data in regard to your 
courses which you have been so kind as to send me. 

Very sincerely yours, 

(Signed) Benj. I. Wheeler. 

Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



Xetter from Mon, Milliam U. Marris 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 
Department of the Interior. 

Washington, D. C, December 2, 1902. 
Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

President of The American Society for the 
Extension of University Teaching. 

Dear Sir: — I have looked over the syllabi of the several 
lecture courses of the University Extension Society, of which 
you are the head, and I admire very much the make-up of 
the different series from year to year. The figures of at- 
tendance seem to me very encouraging. 

I have from the beginning believed in University Ex- 
tension rightly managed. It should stimulate home work. 
I do not recall another series of lecture courses with so rich 
a list of lectures and lecturers as your own Society shows, 
and I hope that there will be no difficulty in continuing a 
work that has already done so much good and promises to 
do so much in the future. 

I return enclosures in order that you may use them 

elsewhere. 

Very truly yours, 

(Signed) W. T. Harris, 

Commissioner. 



Xetter trom finr. ?obn M. Converse 



BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS. 
Burnham, Williams & Co. 

Philadelphia, November 25, 1902. 
Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

President of The American Society for the 

Extension of University Teaching. 
Dear Sir: — In response to your letter, I would say that 
as I have been familiar with the work of the American 
Society from its inception, I take pleasure in giving my 
testimony as to the value of what it has accomplished. 

Whilst the efifort to extend University Teaching has 
been somewhat modified, there is no doubt but that the 
courses of lectures on historical, literary, and scientific 
subjects have been of great interest and have done much 
to stimulate study on the part of the communities in 
which the courses have been given. I regard the under- 
taking as one well worthy of public support. 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) John H. Converse. 



Xetter from fiQicbael E. Sabler, nn.H. 

FELLOW OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD ; FORMER SECRETARY OF THE OXFORD DELEGACY FOR 

THE EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING, EASTWOOD, 

WKYBRIDGE, SURREY, ENGLAND 



December 13, 1902. 
^My Dear Sir: — I respond with great pleasure to the 
invitation contained in your letter of November 14th. 

For some years I have closely followed the progress 
of the work of The American Society for the Extension of 
University Teaching and, so far as one who is at a dis- 
tance from the scene of its operations can hope to judge, 
I am impressed by the thoroughness of its methods, the 
many-sided interest of its programs and the social value 
and importance of its labors. 

I believe that University Extension Teaching was never 
more needed than it is to-day, and that a future of in- 
creasing usefulness lies before all patient and well-organ- 
ized endeavor on the Hnes which your Society has made 
its own. One great feature of the period in which we 
live is the rapid dififusion of new knowledge and the open- 
ing up of convenient access to the classical sources of in- 
tellectual inspiration. The printed page can do much, but 
it cannot do everything. In all education we need the 
personality of the teacher and the power of the human 
voice. University Extension Teaching is the adjunct to the 
public library in the dissemination of culture. 

We live in a period of rapid social transition. All 
over the world the thoughts of men and women are 
agitated by a sense of impending change. Some con- 
clusions which they once held to be clear have been tem- 
porarily obscured by new knowledge. Many seem to 
have turned aside from studies (especially from those which 



Xetter from fiHicbael B. SaDler, nQ.B. 



are economic, ethical, and political) which, at present, 
seem to them unable to offer final conclusions, in a suffi- 
ciently precise and definite form for the guidance of their 
mimediate actions. Some who are thus affected by the 
intellectual atmosphere of our times seem to be seeking 
relief in amusement or in some form of mental distrac- 
tion. Others have been carried away by the rush of new 
interests and pleasures brought within their reach in a 
period of unexampled material prosperity. Again, a healthy 
reaction from superficial and pretentious half knowledge 
has deepened in many of the more sensitive minds the 
respect for scholarly specialization; but the same cause 
seems also to have unduly discouraged some from attempt- 
ing to maintain (so great is the pressure of modern life 
and so rapid the development of new knowledge) that 
wide range of cultivated attainment which a persevering 
use of University Extension Teaching would have brought 
within their reach. 

But, in spite of these difficulties. University Exten- 
sion Teaching steadily makes its way. It meets, in a 
form well adjusted to modern conditions, a deepening 
social need. A new social idea is gradually shaping itself 
in the public mind. The feverish pursuit of wealth for 
the sake of power and position cannot always continue to 
satisfy, as a life aim, many of those who, at present, are 
unduly under its influence. In some more stable form of 
social structure than that in which we at present live 
three things will, I think, be regarded as indispensable to 
rightly ordered human life: (i) Reasonable certainty of 

10 



Xetter from fiQicbael E. SaMer, mi.H. 



employment, throughout the working years of Hfe, for 
those who are skilful at their task and industrious in 
discharging it; (2) application of the resources of science 
to the purifying and beautifying of the conditions of 
modern town life, with due regard to the upholding of 
the sense of communal unity and, at the same time, to 
the preservation of the privacy and individuality of home 
life; and (3) the abundant provision of education, of varied 
types, but of the finest quality, not only for those in 
childhood and adolescence, but for adult citizens. We have 
only touched the fringe of what might, and should, be 
achieved in the sphere of adult education for the masses 
of the people. In the national 'provision for adult educa- 
tion. University Extension Teaching is likely to bear an 
important part. Those Avho uphold its interests during 
these difficult years of social readjustment deserve well of 
the State and have a strong claim on the liberality of 
their fellow-citizens. 

Believe me, dear sir. 

Yours very sincerely, 

(Signed) Michael E. Sadler. 
Charles A. Brinley, Esq., 

Philadelphia, U. S. A. 



II 



Xetter trom professor IRicbart) G. fmoulton 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 

In my judgment the true function of the university 
is being performed, in kind, though not in amount, by 
the great University Extension agencies, of which The 
American Society for the Extension of University Teach- 
ing is second to none. The actual universities are doing 
splendid work; but, from pressure of circumstances, they 
are more and more changing into schools — law schools, 
medical schools, divinity schools, graduate schools. The 
university work of culturS for its own sake, and not as 
a passport for entrance into special professions, is more 
naturally and healthily performed on the Extension plan, 
which extends a curriculum through a lifetime, instead 
of compressing it into three or four years. The reason 
why Extension agencies offer at present only a fraction of 
what a curriculum should be is that they are, practically, 
without endowment, whereas the smallest college relies 
on endowment for a great part of its cost. Exactly in 
proportion as an educational agency is endowed, it can 
regulate its work by purely educational considerations, with- 
out having to modify these in seeking popular attractive- 
ness. 

(Signed) Richard G. Moulton. 
December i, 1902. 



12 



Xetter from presi&cnt 3E&munb 5. Raines 



NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. 
President's Office. 

EvANSTON, III., December 9, 1902. 

Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

My Dear Mr. Brinley: — I have followed the work of 
The American Society for the Extension of University 
Teaching with the keenest interest from its organization, 
more than ten years ago, to the present. For the first 
five or six years I had a very intimate knowledge of its 
work, and since that time I have taken pains to keep 
myself posted as to what it was doing by the examina- 
tion of its printed material and visits to its ofifice and 
conference with its officers and friends, as well as with 
persons who were interested in it simply because of their 
attendance at lectures given under its auspices. 

I think this Society is doing a most valuable educa- 
tional work. To hold up continuously before any com- 
munity the ideal of systematic reading and systematic 
study, even if it be only for a fraction of one's time, is 
a very valuable educational service. When, in addition, 
an organization offers such an excellent series of lectures 
by university men who are not merely university men in 
the sense of having been in the universities, but are in- 
spired with the university spirit, and who have, moreover, 
qualified themselves to deliver their message in the most 
efficient way, a most valuable educational agency has 
been set at work in the community. The results of this 



13 



Xetter from |p>resi&ent E^munD 5. James 

work are visible in many different directions, and I do 
not believe that an equal sum of money could be better 
expended for the interest of popular education than the 
amount necessary to keep this agency at work. 

Faithfully yours, 
(Signed) Edmund J. James. 



14 



Xetter from Br. ]E&war& Broofts 



» 



DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE. 

Philadelphia, December 6, 1902. 
Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

President of The American Society for the 
Extension of University Teaching. 

My Dear Sir: — I have watched the work of The 
American Society for the Extension of University Teach- 
ing in Philadelphia with great interest, and can give it 
my most hearty commendation and endorsement. It has 
opened the way to the study of literature, history, and 
social and economic questions to thousands of our people, 
and has been to them an intellectual stimulus to higher 
culture and attainments. It has thus carried the influence 
of the university into the home life of our people, and 
been the source of increased intelligence, and of that 
personal and social culture that inevitably flows therefrom. 
I trust that the good work of the association may not 
only be continued, but that its work in the future may 
be even more extended and far-reaching in its beneficent 

influences. 

Very truly yours, 

(Signed) Edward Brooks, 

Supt. Public Schools. 



IS 



Xettcv trom H)i*. llatbanicl Butler 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 

November 25, 1902. 
Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

President of The American Society for the 
Extension of University Teaching. 

My Dear Sir: — I have been examining with great 
interest some memoranda setting forth the work of The 
American Society for the Extension of University Teach- 
ing for the last ten years and more. I have been in a 
position during that time to appreciate, I think, at its full 
value the character of this work and its influence upon the 
communities where it is organized. I am seriously con- 
vinced that the educational value of this work is simply 
inestimable. It has, of course, become a truism among 
educators, and indeed among thoughtful people in general, 
tliat education is by no means to be confined to the 
early years of life spent in the schools, but that, con- 
sisting as it must of the constant enlightenment of the 
resources of the individual, it must be a life-long process. 
Whatever can be done to encourage and actually secure 
systematic intellectual life among adults, and to broaden 
continually their interest in the attainments of other men> 
which I take to be the purpose of culture, must receive 
the hearty approval of all who believe in education. I 
do not think it would be possible to know any agency 
that has done more in this direction to counteract the 
narrowing tendencies of our necessarily busy life than 
such work as conducted by the American Society. Proba- 
bly the doing of work that can be called university work 

16 



Xctter from Dr. IHatbaniel Butler 



is a thing not realized in this country to the extent that 
it is done in England in connection with University 
Extension work. It seems to me that the great value of 
this work lies in just what the Society possesses, — namely, 
to induce people to attend series of lectures by compe- 
tent men and women, and to read books recommended 
by those who are in a position to recommend intelligently. 
I have the honor to be, 

Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) Nathaniel Butler. 



17 



Xetter from iprofessor Simon HI. patten 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
The College. 

Finance and Commerce 
(Wharton School). 

Philadelphia, January 3, 1903. 

My Dear Sir: — I have followed the development of 
University Extension with great satisfaction. Even its 
failures have interested me, because they have shown the 
way to firmer ground. I have never lost confidence in 
the future of the American Society, and believe it is the 
beginning of a social institution of the first magnitude. 
Education is not merely for the young; it must continue 
as long as growth and vitality permit. 

Sincerely yours, 
(Signed) Simon N. Patten. 

To President Charles A. Brinley. 



18 



Xetter from Dr. Blbert Sbaw, EMtor 



"THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF 

REVIEWS," 

13 Astor Place, New York. 

November 24, 1902. 
Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

President of The American Society for the 

Extension of University Teaching. 
My Dear Sir: — I have been somewhat familiar from 
the beginning- with the University Extension work ac- 
complished -from the Philadelphia Centre, and have always 
been in the most cordial sympathy with it, believing in 
the usefulness of its method, in the breadth and sym- 
pathy of the spirit it has displayed, and in the value of its 
practical results as I have had occasion to know about them. 
I should think it cause for much regret if this American 
Society for the Extension of University Teaching should 
not obtain the support needed for the further growth of 
its admirable work. Believe me 

Sincerely yours, 
(Signed) Albert Shaw. 



19 



Xetter trom Secretary Maltet H. ipa\?ne 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 

Founded by John D. Rockefeller. 

The Extension Division. 

The Lecture-Stud}^ Department. 

Walter A. Payne, Secretary. 

Chicago, December 19, 1902. 
Mr. Charles A. Brinley, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
My Dear Mr. Brinley:- — It is my earnest conviction 
that no other educational work has been inaugurated in 
the past twenty-five years to which can be traced di- 
rectly so much of value to the people as a whole as to 
the various forms of the University Extension movement. 
It is not difficult to trace those kindred movements, 
"School Education" and the Free Lecture movement, di- 
rectly to the influence which has been exerted by Uni- 
versity Extension lecturers and University Extension 
workers. Great credit is due the American Society as 
pioneer of this movement in America. The friends of 
popular education will hail with, delight anything which 
tends to increase its scope and effectiveness. 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) Walter A. Payne. 



I 



Xetter from IRev. Xyman p. ipowell 



ST. JOHN'S RECTORY. 

Lansdowne, Pa., November 29, 1902. 
Dear Nolcii: — I am glad, of course, to say a word 
about the work of the American Society, and I hope I 
have a right to speak. I have been a lecturer, student, 
friend, promoter, organizer, and almost everything a man 
can be as to the movement. I have seen the work of 
ihe Society, inside and outside as well, and the work 
grows steadily in my estimation. It has touched every 
class. I know that from both observation and experi- 
ence. It has stimulated much of the widespread interest 
everywhere in evidence in every sort of education. It 
has contributed as has no other agency to the general 
acceptance of the concept, as strange fifteen years ago to 
all Americans as it is now familiar, that education is to 
last as long as life and is not for childhood alone. It 
has given pause in many a university and college to the 
snobbishness and pharisaism which have no rightful place 
in any institution, educational or otherwise, that claims to 
be democratic. It has helped to bind together and to 
make vertebrate our sometime disassociated and inverte- 
brate agencies for education from the kindergarten to the 
university. It has helped the clergyman who has given 
place to it among the activities of his church to elevate 
and dignify the life of his people and to substitute for 
village gossip that world gossip which is itself a mark 
of higher living and saner thinking. 

Ever yours, 
(Signed) Lyman P. Powell. 



Xettet trom (tbt, 5obn Ubomson, Xibrarian 



THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA. 

John Thomson, Librarian. 

121 7-21 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

November 5, 1902. 

Dear Mr. Nolen: — The University Extension lectures 
undoubtedly increase the demand upon the Free Library 
for the books recommended by the lecturers and used in 
the study classes in connection with the lectures. " 

Yours truly, 
(Signed) John Thomson, 

Librarian. 



22 



Xetter from fiQr. IKIlarren Sn^Der 

HEAD OF BOOK DEPARTMENT 



I 



JOHN WANAMAKER. 
City Hall Square. 

Philadelphia, November 13, 1902. 

Dear Mr. Nolen: — Answering- your inquiry as to how 
the University Extension movement has affected the book 
business, I find it difficult to treat the subject specifically. 
Looking- back, however, over the past ten years, I am 
sure that there has been a marked improvement in the 
taste of the book-buying public of Philadelphia, and I 
fuhy beheve the improvement is due, in a large measure, 
to the work done by the University Extension movement 
in this city. For the last four or five years the demand 
for books recommended in the courses has been steadily 
growing, but the largest results to us came through the 
two courses given by Professor Griggs on "Dante" and 
"Goethe." 

The demand for the "Divine Comedy" and "Faust" 
increased a hundredfold, and did not end with the lec- 
tures, for a healthy interest in these two masterpieces 
has been sustained. In addition, the critical works on 
the "Divine Comedy" are so steadily called for that I find it 
necessary to keep on hand most of the books mentioned 
in Professor Griggs' syllabus. 

His course on Browning promises to be one of the 
most popular, judging from the increasing sale of the 
Cambridge edition of Browning. 

It is quite remarkable that these subjects should be 
so popular, as every bookseller must recognize the fact 

23 



Xetter from fnir. Marren Sn^Der 



that, while the reading public has grown so in the last 
decade, the demand for the standard poets has not pro- 
portionately increased. In these days of numberless maga- 
zines and sensational newspapers, both of which have a 
vitiating effect upon the taste, a movement which has 
been able to bring about such a healthy demand for two 
of the great poets, who had been practically relegated to 
the back shelves, should be heartily endorsed by all who 
are interested in the reading public, whether from a hu- 
manitarian or a business point of view. 

Yours very truly, 
(Signed) Warren Snyder. 



24 



Xcttcr from /Member of a xaniversit^ Eitcnsion Committee 



PARSONAGE. 
630 North Broad Street, Philadelphia. 

I think so highly of the aims and work of The 
American Society for the Extension of University Teach- 
ing that I have accepted its educational program as no 
small part of my vocation. The six lecture courses which 
we had in Hagerstown, Md., proved beyond peradventure 
that University Extension offers the most charming and 
effective centres of social and intellectual life presented to 
the American people. I shall seek to organize such cen- 
tres of "light and leading" whenever and wherever the 
opportunity is presented. 

(Signed) Edwin Heyl Delk, 

St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



25 



Xetter from fiHember of a IDlniversitp ^Extension Committee 



Philadelphia, December 26, 1902. 
Mr. John Nolen. 

My Dear Sir: — In reply to your note concerning my 
opinion of the work of the Extension movement I would 
say: 

I am heartily in favor of anything that will awaken 
and foster a healthy interest in that which is wholesome 
and helpful in good literature, and that which will lead 
to more careful and studious reading of the masters in 
literature. 

The Society for the Extension of University Teach- 
ing has done excellent work in that direction with those 
who allowed their daily cares and duties to crowd out their 
higher intellectual interests. And with the younger gen- 
eration yet in school or just leaving it, in leading them 
to more critical and sympathetic reading of such works 
in sound literature of which as yet they only had a 
formal acquaintance. It has been my privilege and pleas- 
ure to watch the practical workings of the system in the 
Tioga Centre, which was formed several years ago. I 
am sure that there is a more intelligent interest taken in 
such matters by those who have been identified with the 
movement in the centre from the beginning, and that 
they feel more than repaid for the time and study which 
they have freely given. In particular they have profited 
by the "Study Class" in connection with the several 
courses of. lectures, which has led to a class for study at 
other times. In awakening a literary interest and leading 
to associated and sympathetic studies, the courses of Uni- 
versity Extension lectures have brought forth good re- 
sults. Yours sincerely, 

(Signed) William L. Ledwith. 

26 



Xetter from miember ot a xaniversitp Bxtension Committee 



NoRVVALK, Conn., November 22, 1902. 
After a life spent, by natural inclination, in educa- 
tional work, — in the school, the public library, with popu- 
lar lecture courses and women's clubs, — this is my con- 
viction with regard to The American Society for the Ex- 
tension of University Teaching: An intimate experience 
with the Society for five years convinces me that it is 
one of the most valuable institutions of our time because 
of its appeal to the people who long for the opportunity 
to study, its thoroughness of method and the enthusiasm 
it awakens for the highest cultivation. 

(Signed) Dotha Stone Pinneo, 

Librarian Norwalk Public Library. 
Sec'y Connecticut Federation of 
Women's Clubs. 



27 



Xetter from a XHniversits Bitension Stu&ent 



Yours of the 5th iiist. is received, and I gladly bear 
my small testimony to the value of University Extension 
as I have known it. 

In reviewing the past eleven years of my life, as I 
was at once led to do in response to your request, I was 
impressed with the comparative poverty of the residue 
if the whole Extension element, root and branch, were 
stricken out of them. To a teacher only too prone to 
trundle quietly along in the ruts of routine, every Exten- 
sion course opened a broader horizon or offered a fresh 
incentive for a larger grasp of familiar subjects. Reading, 
always a delight, but often desultory, became systematized 
and purposeful. Essay work demanded exercise of thought 
and effort for expression that were both a joy in them- 
selves and of positive value in dealing with pupils, for the 
teacher who does not lose the habit of definite mental 
activity will be likely to have a sympathetic insight into 
the difficulties and perplexities of younger minds. 

There are different ways of keeping in touch with 
live thoughts, of maintaining the efficient mental dis- 
cipline that we prize as the result of our years at school 
or college, but the most accessible for the majority of 
us is to become a life student in the university brought to 
our door. In the Extension lecturers we find able lead- 
ers, advisers, and critics; in almost any Extension course, 
material and suggestion for profitable study far beyond 
the possibilities of time that a busy life affords. 

The oft-repeated criticism of the superficiality of Uni- 
versity Extension work falls harmless on the student, for 
no one realizes more fully than he how little he can 

28 



Xetter from a iHuiversit^ lEiteusiou Stu&eut 

^appropriate of the intellectual wealth of which he catches 
a glimpse now and again. But he knows it is there! 
That is something in a workaday world, and if the same 
door open a second time, how ready he will be for it! 
One does not shut one's eyes to every beautiful vista to 
be caught from an express train because one cannot stop 
to explore' each one to the uttermost; nor does a reason- 
able person claim to know the whole country on such an 
acquaintance. 

As a student I am deeply grateful to University 
Extension; I owe a distinct debt to Mr. Moulton and 
Mr. Shaw, to Mr. Fiske and Mr. Griggs and many others, 
not only for the instruction I have had of them in their 
several departments, but also for the more subtle teaching 
of their personality, of their general attitude as exponents 
of culture. 

What I have said of myself I am sure is equally true 
of students who have come from the typewriter, from 
household cares, from clerical labors, from piano drill and 
from manual routine. The students who have been longest 
together have seen one another grow, and all look 
forward from the end of one profitable season with a 
certainty of expectation to the next. 

I have answered your question with a feeling that 
personal testimony might be worth more than generali- 
ties, and hope that I may have furnished you with one 
or two points that will be useful in your general estimate. 
December 7, 1902. 



29 



Xetter from a IHniversitK? Bitension Stubent 



Your question is a rather large one, but to put the 
answer in a few words: We have found the Extension 
work invaluable as an inspiration to systematic reading 
and serious thought. Undoubtedly such a movement goes 
toward raising educational standards. The very character 
of the men who are engaged in this work is of utmost 
value. Indeed, this, I think, is one of its chief virtues 
As you know, we have had five successive years of Ex- 
tension work, and without exception we have found the 
instructors men of inspiration and sterling worth. Such 
a work done by such men cannot help but be of vast 
importance. 

December i6, 1902. 



30 



Xetter from a IHnipersitp lEitension Student 

The University Extension method of spreading learn- 
ing among those denied the privilege of institutional 
education is the most complete system I know of. 

First. It brings the student into personal contact 
with the teacher. The advantage from this is twofold: 
It does its own missionary work, while the correspondence 
school requires that the desire to learn be supplied by some 
other means. The enthusiasm of the lecturer is constantly 
bringing our students' club new members, and occasionally 
we get from this class of newcomers a good student, who 
pursues the work for its own sake. It also supplies more 
direct guidance than the correspondence system can pos- 
sibly do. Not only may students receive suggestive com- 
ments on their written work as in the correspondence 
school, but the lectures serve to keep up the enthusiasm 
of students who are lukewarm or whose lives are so full 
of other duties that there is a constant temptation to drop 
their study, or of the more earnest students who grow dis- 
couraged by the difficulties of the problems set. 

Second. Its device of students' clubs under the care 
of the teacher gives to individual students the broadening 
effect of contact with other minds that enables such 
united effort to produce the best results. The student 
using the correspondence method must work out prob- 
lems alone, without the healthful corrective influence of 
comparing results with fellow-students; or if a .club be 
formed, it is an arrangement separate and apart from 
the plan of the educational system and lacks its direction. 

December 8, 1902. 

31 



Xettcr from a "dniverslt^ Bitension Stu^ent 



It is a pleasure for me to send my word of hearty 
approval and sincere gratitude for University Extension 
work and ways to me personally as an earnest student. 
University Extension means information given, primarily ; 
but it means in my judgment so much, so very much, 
more: It stands equally for inspiration to the individual 
student and a happy helpfulness to any who are willing 
to be helped. It is a movement standing for progress 
and growth, wide in scope and of a value quite impossi- 
ble to accurately estimate, but very real to experience. 
On the principle that "actions speak louder than words," 
I think no more brilliant example of the worth and work 
can be found in favor of University Extension than our 
own local student body, which, starting with eight mem- 
bers in June, 1900, has grown to more than fifty now. 

I am only sorry that my opinion as personal student 
and class student cannot be, in the nature of things, of 
much, if any, value. 

December 6, 1902. 



32 



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